Culture

Culture is one of the four pillars of the DevOpsCAMS model. Culture in a DevOps context is about breaking down barriers not only between development and operations, but also between all kinds of teams and between teams of the same type. The goal is a safe environment that encourages innovation and creativity. An environment that encourages smart failure and that understands what motivates skilled information workers: Autonomy, mastery and purpose. The motto should be: Think it, build it, run it, or just: You build it, you run it.

The Accelerate book uses sociologist Ron Westrum’s typology of organizational culture in their surveys, and found that in 2016:

31% of us work in an organization with a pathological culture:

Power-oriented

Large amounts of fear and threat.

People hard, withold and distort information for political resons.

48% of us work in an organization with a bureacratic culture:

Rule-oriented

Protect your department and make your own rules.

Do things by the book (your book). This is more important than achieving the mission.

21% of us work in an organization with a generative culture:

Performance-oriented

A focus on the mission: How do we reach our goal?

Good information flow, better collaboration, high level of trust, less hierarchy.